Mike Cox's family tree has deep Texas roots. He began his full-time newspaper career as a reporter for the San Angelo Standard-Times in 1967 and later worked for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and Austin American-Statesman. After a twenty-year career in journalism, he joined the Texas Department of Public Safety and served as its spokesman for fifteen years. He retired from the state in 2007, but in 2010 he retired from retirement and now works in the communications division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. An elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters, he is the author of twenty nonfiction books. In 2010, he received the West Texas Book and Music Festival's A.C. Greene Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Fredericksburg in the Texas hill country.